THE POTATO 475 



little of any kind of meal except (where practi- 

 cable) fine wheat shorts. 



" It is a good plan to begin to feed the young pigs 

 when about four weeks old, by themselves, on a 

 little wheat and shorts mixed with skimmed milk, 

 if you have it. As to the breeding sows, I keep 

 mine now at less than half the cost I used to 

 twenty years ago. I generally have about fifteen 

 or sixteen brooding sows or gilts, and most of these 

 run out summer and winter with the boar in a 

 grass field. In this field they have about five 

 acres to themselves and have rough sheds to lay 

 in. We take them about four buckets say, 

 about ten gallons (perhaps twelve gallons) 

 per day of slop made of meal and potatoes, and 

 they get plenty of exercise picking up a living from 

 the grass and a few rough roots such as very rough 

 potatoes, mangles and waste grains of any kind 

 when we have them. Sows and gilts in pig, in my 

 opinion, require plenty of exercise and should only 

 be shut up a few days before pigging." 



After fully studying and investigating the Lin- 

 colnshire farm district, farm lands, livestock, 

 grass, grazing, and potatoes, I cannot see wherein 

 they have an earning capacity equal to the irri- 

 gated fertile lands that have a sufficient water 

 supply, like Colorado, Idaho, Utah, and Cali- 

 fornia. The latter exceed them in quantity and 

 quality of everything produced. ,We (in the 

 West) can and do grow more wheat, more grass, 

 more oats, potatoes, and more hay, with a more 

 healthful climate, and with all kinds of fruit. 

 Lincolnshire is debarred from growing fruits. 

 Above all, our continual summer sunshine enables 

 us to harvest our crops without loss and in good 



